We are planning to setup our own mail server, and would like to know what steps are needed to redirect from WestHost to the new one. Barbara

rolling

09-23-2007, 06:01 PM

You will need to reconfigure your DNS records to point to your new server.

At the moment your DNS record will be set up to use the mail server at example.com and mail.example.com is defined using a CNAME record for example.com.

IN A xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
IN MX 10 example.com
mail IN CNAME @

You will need to define a new A record for your new mail server and then create a new MX record for that A record. MX records MUST NOT point to either CNAME or IP Addresses. The lower the preference (the number in your MX record), the higher its priority. If you want to use mail.example.com as your mail server, you will need to delete the current CNAME first.

For example:
New A record OurServer.example.com IP Address yyy.yyy.yyy.yyy
New MX record IN MX 20 OurServer.example.com

If you do not understand the intricacies of DNS, then try reading this exaplanation. (http://www.rscott.org/dns/) If you don't like Westhost's DNS management tools (for example, you want to set up an A record for a secondary domain), then you can try someone like EasyDNS (http://www.easydns.com/dnsmanage.php3) for $20 pa

jball

09-24-2007, 07:43 PM

Dear BLSchneier,

Please make sure you put your MX record as such:

OurServer.example.com.

This includes a period at the end, which is required for this type of record. This can be setup in your Site Manager under Domain Management > DNS Records > Main MX Record or Domain Settings > DNS Records > Main MX Record. You would need to setup the A record that points to the IP as outlined by rolling and then setup the MX record with the name you gave to the A record (just make sure you include the period at the end of the MX record but the period isn't needed when you setup the A record).

drhansenjr

10-16-2007, 09:04 PM

Is is possible to do this for a domain that is not the primary domain on the account? If so, how would the procedure differ?